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Old 09-24-2018, 09:18 AM   #1
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JC Refrigeration HVAC Conversion

Just wanted to share my experience with this conversion for any others that may be considering it.
After much debate my wife and I decided to replace our failed cooling unit on our Dometic RM 7030 with JC Refrigertion’s HVAC conversion.
Although he did not have a specific video for this conversion, the regular cooling unit R&R video provided enough insight for me to take this on myself.
Also, JR provided me with a picture of the new connection points on the circuit board.
The unit cost $895 plus $175 for shipping $1,070 total. It came Friday and everything was in the box we needed except for the 3/8” brass plug for the gas main and some wire and connectors I needed to extend some of the leads including the main 110V plug. My son in law and a neihbor helped with the install. We started when I got home from work Friday at about 6pm and had the fridge back in by 10:30pm.

I let it sit upright overnight and the next morning finished the 12V connection to the circuit board as I had to extend it as well. When I first powered the unit up it went to AC power then went to fault. I then realized the fuse popped on the board and I had forgotten to put the fuse in JC Refrigeration had sent. Put the fuse in and powered it off and back on and it fired right up!

Within two hours it was cold enough to switch food over. As of this morning fridge is super cold and freezer is functioning perfect.

Tips if you decide to do this yourself:
1. Have at least two helpers
2. Have 12awg wire in black, white, red and green.
3. Keep your terminal ends from the gas leads going to circuit board, they are angled to fit under the board cover.
4. Purchase the good heat shrinking internal solder butt connectors...made for great connections.
5. Purchase gas main plug. Mine was a 3/8” male.
6. Put visquine down in coach foam manages to find its way to the floor and furnature.
7. Dry fit the new unit and trim foam until it fits perfectly then foam it in.
8. After foaming unit in, screwing it down and taping it off. Stand the unit up and screw in cooling fins while foam is still wet...made it easy to get good contact between plates and thermo-mastic caulk.
9. Install the fridge and let it set for as many hours installed as you had it on its side so the compressor oil has time to find its way back down to the compressor.
10. Install the new fuse in the circuit board!!!
11. Once it starts up make sure the cooling fan is running.
12. There was no instruction as to where to mount the circuit board to the new cooling unit so I just put it where it made most sense for future service and access.

All in all I thought this swap was relatively easy as long as you are handy and have a basic understanding of AC & DC electric.

We are extremely happy with our decision and would recommend this to anyone who wants to keep their RV fridge but have the benefits of a residential fridge.

As to power consumption, I put my amp meter on the compressor lead and it was drawing 1.0-1.1 amps under what I would say is its heaviest load trying to do the initial cool down. I did switch the refrigerator circuit in the breaker box to the side of the panel that is powered by our inverter. By my calculations with our current battery/inverter (4ea 225ah lead acid/ 2500watt inverter) set up I could run the fridge a week before having to re-charge the batteries if we are boondocking. I assume with other loads that will be more like every 3 days. Once we install solar this should be a non-issue.

Sorry I didn’t take more pics but things were moving kind of fast!

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Old 09-24-2018, 09:37 AM   #2
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Nice, I wonder if there is a conversion for my Norcold 1210IM fridge. Mine sprung a leak.

The last time I checked a replacement coolant system costs about $1400. I've been using a mini fridge.


Edit:


How many cubic feet does your model cover?
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Old 09-24-2018, 09:46 AM   #3
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There should be! Reach out to JR at JC Refrigeration 260-768-4067
jcref@centurylink.net
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Old 09-24-2018, 09:52 AM   #4
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Very interesting , and good info .

One question , could you post a measurement ; from the back of the fridge housing to the outside edge of the compressor mount tray .

Just looking at the pictures , I don't believe , my coach has the depth required for this conversion.

EDIT: From looking at the pictures blown up, that would be the depth of the compressor mount tray; as the tray appears to mount flush the the original fridge housing.
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Old 09-24-2018, 10:06 AM   #5
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I am right now in the process of changing out my failed cooling unit with one of the JC ones. Although I went for a direct upgrade. Ran into a small hitch yesterday when dropping the new unit into the fridge, there is a small "shipping brace" on one of the tubes at the bottom of the unit that puts the tube in the way of the fridge support rail. Need to cut that off to move the tubing out of the way. But we ran out of time. All-in-all this is a very well made unit and look forward to having a working fridge.
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Old 09-24-2018, 04:19 PM   #6
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@Skip426 I measured that plate for you and it seams to be right at 6”

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Old 09-24-2018, 04:20 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JESTIMATOR2 View Post
@Skip426 I measured that plate for you and it seams to be right at 6”

Attachment 220409


@Gavenger I agree the build quality is great. Hope all goes well finishing yours up!
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Old 10-08-2018, 08:40 AM   #8
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@Gavenger I agree the build quality is great. Hope all goes well finishing yours up!
had my 1200 lrim nevercold worked on by jr at jc-refridge in Shipshewana. made it all electric due to nevercold recalls.went from setting 8 for soft icecream to 2 for freezer temp of 0 degrees and fridge temp of 27-32. Cools to these temps in under 3 hours from a dead start. extremely happy with jr and jc conversion. took abt 3 hours to do ay his shop.
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Old 10-11-2018, 10:48 AM   #9
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Originally Posted by makemglow View Post
had my 1200 lrim nevercold worked on by jr at jc-refridge in Shipshewana. made it all electric due to nevercold recalls.went from setting 8 for soft icecream to 2 for freezer temp of 0 degrees and fridge temp of 27-32. Cools to these temps in under 3 hours from a dead start. extremely happy with jr and jc conversion. took abt 3 hours to do ay his shop.
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Old 10-11-2018, 11:03 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by JESTIMATOR2 View Post
@Gavenger I agree the build quality is great. Hope all goes well finishing yours up!
Used the new fridge last weekend for first time. After validating that I put all the wires where they needed to be, I held my breath and turned it on gas only (this was about 9pm). Within a few hours it was starting to cool down. During the drive to the campground I used a Blue Apron (we have a subscription) box and the 2 ice packs that come in them. So once the fridge was turned on, I stuck the 2 ice packs in the freezer to kinda help it cool down, and also to keep the ice packs colder. by next morning everything was frozen solid, in a good way, in the freezer and the fridge was really cold. Sometime Sat I flipped the auto switch to AC/Gas and watched the temps in the fridge while it was on shore power to make sure the electrical side was working as well. Everything worked perfectly.

Outside temps were in the mid 80s over the weekend and the freezer stayed at 0 degrees and the fridge was at about 38 degrees the whole weekend.
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